Apparatus for the production of wort



July 30, 1968 F. REITER 3,394,647

APPARATUS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF WOR'I Original Filed Dec. 26, 1962 5Shee cs-Sheet l July 30, 1968 F. REITER 3,394,647

APPARATUS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF WORT Original Filed Dec. 26, 1962 5Sheets-Sheet 2 i FIG. 2

I ML INVENTOR.

July 30, 1968 I RE|TER 3,394,647

APPARATUS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF WOR'I Original Filed Dec. 26, 1962 5Sheets-Sheet a FIG. 3

in .3- 29 23%.? w i g d '1 no ll H. H H 25 F 23 8a 21 July 30, 1968 F.REITER 3,394,647

APPARATUS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF WORT Original Filed Dec. 26, 19C2 5Sheets-Sheet July 30, 1968 F. REITER 3,394,547

ATUS FOR THE PRQD Original Filed Dec. 26, 1962 5 Sheets-Sheets I UnitedStates Patent Claims. ((51. 99-278) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE In anapparatus for the production of wort, a filter drum for the separationof the wort from the spent grains comprises suction means to draw thewort into the drum and means cutting the cake of spent grainsaccumulating on the periphery of the drum, while it is being sparged,into small readily extratced pieces.

This application is a division of my application Ser. No. 247,097, filedDec. 26, 1962, now Patent No. 3,249,443.

This invention relates to an apparatus for the production of wort.

Wort is prepared from malted and/or other grain by mashing, sparging,and filtering. The conventional methods and apparatus for the productionof wort for malt beverages are complicated; they require considerabletime and produce frequently yields of low and varying extract content.

In accordance with the invention, the yield of wort is improved and theprocessing time is reduced by comminuting the malt grains to a finegrist, passing the fine grist through a continuously operated mashingplant, if necessary with continuous recycling, and by sparging the mashand extracting the wort while applying suction and filtering.

Preferably, the malt is ground, prior to mashing, to a particle size of0.05 mm. the grist is subjected to a single or several successivemashing operations, and then wort is recovered by suction, and the spentgrains are at the same time extracted. Thereby, the mash is, in thedecoction process, after the first initial mashing operation, heated tosaccharification and boiling temperature and cooked for a very shortperiod of time. Subsequently, the final mash is prepared and thenclarified by filtration.

The clarification is carried out by passing the mash onto the peripheryof the drum of a continuous rotating suction filter where it issubjected sequently to drawing the wort extract inside the drum,sparging repeatedly the cake retained on the periphery of the drum withhot water, drawing off again the extracted wort, and finally removingthe washed grains from the periphery of the drum.

Preferably, the drum covered by a fine screen turns in a vessel thelower trough-like portion of which contains the mash. Radial suctionlines inside the drum draw the Wort extract through the fine mesh screentowards the inside; cutting means act from the outside inwardly on thelayer of residual solids remaining on the periphery of the fine meshscreen. and rinsing and sparging devices are provided to spray the mashon the screen. At the end of the thus provided extracting zone, thereare means to take off and discharge the spent grains from the outersurface of the drum.

The invention will be described more in detail with reference to theaccompanying drawings, where :FIG. 1 is an illustrative representationof a wort production plant in accordance with the invention;

3,394,647 Patented July 30, 1968 FIG. 2 is a side view, partly insection, of a rotary suction filter according to the invention;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the filter of FIG. 2, taken along lineIII-III of FIG. 2;

FIGS. 4 and 5 are side and plan views of the cutting means associatedwith the suction filter, and

FIGS. 6 and 7 are side and top plan views of another embodiment of thecutting means of the invention.

Referring now to the drawings and to FIG. 1, the reference numeral 1designates the malt silo, and 2 the scales for the malt; 3 is a finegrist mill for the malt and 4 is a mixer for mixing the malt with coldor warm water. Instead of the mixer 4, a malt grist silo 5 may be used,whereby the mashing is done directly.

6A, 6B, 6C and 6D are four vessels for the mashing operation, which areequipped with agitating means and combined to a unit. Pipes withsuitable valves connect the vessels with each other and with acirculating pump 7A and a heating device 7 for the mash in form of aplate heater or the like. 6A is a mash storage and mixing vessel withstirrer; a pipe connects the vessel 6A with the circulating pump 7A andfrom there to the heating device 7 in which the mash mixture, duringpassage, is brought to the desired saccharification temperature,whereupon it is transferred to the vessel 6B. Instead of the illustratedfour mash vessels, only two or more may be used.

The saccharified and cooked mash is passed by the circulating pump 7 andthrough the plate heater 7, alternately to one of the final mash vessels6C or 6D, which are also equipped with agitators, and the final mash isthen passed to the rotating drum suction filter 8. Instead of stirringmembers, each vessel 6A, 6B, 6C, and 6]) may be provided with anindividual circulating pump and suitable piping. The vessels are chargedcontinuously at time intervals corresponding to the various mashingoperations whereby the various shutoif and bypass valves, which may berepresented by multi-way stopcocks, are either manually controlled orautomatically by time switches in predetermined intervals.

In view of the fine comminution of the malt to fine grist, it is alsopossible to pass from the iodine normal saccharification without boilingdirectly to the final mashing operation. In this way, a continuous mashprocess is obtained. In the apparatus described (GA D, 7, 7A), the timerequired for a continuous mash process, with or without boiling, at therespective desired adjustable mash and saccharification temperatures isabout 50 to 60 minutes.

The tu-bs 6A-6D are jacketed for heating with steam or hot water,provided with a vapor tight hood or covers, and equipped with samplingcocks, thermometers, and the like. Connected to the mash tub block6A-6D, there is a rotating drum suction filter 8, the drum of which isarranged in a vessel in such a way that it dips into the mash containedin the lower trough-like part of the 'vessel. Through the hollow shaftof the vacuum filter drum and radial suction pipes, a strong suctioneffect is exerted to extract the wort. Distributed over the outerperiphery of the rotating drum above the surface of the mash containedin the trough-like portion of the heatable drum vessel, there are sprayswith outlet nozzles for atomized extracting liquid, for instance hotwater, which sparges the filter cake formed on the screen of the drum 8.

In order to produce a larger surface for spraying and extracting, Iprovide cutting and severing means along the periphery of the drum forradial action on the solid residues held by suction on the outer surfaceof the drum. After termination of the wort extraction, the remainingfilter cake is, shortly before the drum periphery dips again into themash, lifted from the drum surface by scraper means 13, which rotate inthe opposite direction, and conveyed to the drier 14 from which thebrewers grains are filled into bags 15 for use as animal feed.

The wort drawn off through the hollow shaft and the radial suction pipespasses through a wort buffer tank 8, kieselguhr filters 10 into coppers11, and from there, after addition of hops or other adjuncts, asfinished wort into additional stages 12 of the beer breweing process.There is always only one filter in operation while the other is cleaned.The cop pers 11 are alternately filled and emptied. Instead of akieselguhr filter 10, a separator 10a may be used.

The bottom of the trough of the perforated rotatable drum filter isequipped with a jacket for heating.

The rotary drum suction filter shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 comprises aperforated drum 8 in a vessel 16 having a bottom portion 17 conformingto the periphery of the drum 8; said bottom portion is equipped with aheating jacket 18 and receives the mash, into which the revolving drum 8dips with its lower part. Radial suction tubes or channels lead from theperiphery of the drum to the hollow rotating shaft 19 which is connectedto a vacuum source.

The wort drawn off through the hollow rotating shaft 19 is passed intothe subsequent treatment stages. The spent grains remaining on theperiphery of the filter drum after recovery of the wort are subjected,during the slow rotation of the drum, to spraying or sparging with anextracting liquid, such as hot Water, supplied from nozzle-like outlets.At the same time, the layer of spent grains on the periphery of therotary filter is divided by means of radially acting cutting anddividing means in many small pieces of large surface, so as to extractbetter the wort absorbed at the surface of the grain cake by means ofthe atomized liquid sprayed thereon and to draw it off towards thecenter of the rotary drum 8.

The cutting means roll on the periphery of the drum in the samedirection and at the same rate of speed as the drums so as to preventthe chopped grain particles from gliding off the drum. Several cuttingmeans are provided one behind the other in staggered axial relationship.

By alternately using parallel disc cutters and cutters with zigzag orcurved edges the layer of solid matter on the drum is thoroughly choppedinto small segments.

After the grains have been been completely extracted by means of thesprayed extracting liquid, the remaining filter cake is taken off by thedrum 20 which revolves in the opposite direction as drum 8.

In FIGS. 4 and 5, an embodiment of a cutter device is shown whichcomprises parallel disc cutters 21, supporting discs 22, and a hollowsupporting shaft 23 provided with spray channels 24, 25 arrangedinclined to the radial direction.

In the embodiment of the cutter means shown in FIG. 6 and 7, the cuttingknives are equipped at their outer periphery with zigzag edges 26 whichcut the solids on the filter drum and chop them to small particles whichare sprayed with the warm water and washed. The sprayed liquid may beadmittted through the hollow shaft 23 of the cutter or through sprayingdevices arranged above the cutters.

The cutting blades 21 are rigidly joined to shaft 23 by welding,pressfit, or in any other suitable manner.

The shafts 8a, 8b, 8c of the cutters are driven at the same rotationalspeed and in the same direction as the drum 8 by means of a crossed beltdrive 27 connecting the drum shaft 19 and the shaft 8a, from whichlatter shaft the other cutter shafts 8b, 8c are driven by belt drives28, 29.

The cutter shafts are journaled in supports 30 which can be radiallyadjusted in guide-ways by means of threaded spindles 31 so as to spacethe cutters at the required small distance from the drum to preventinjury to the screen surface of the drum but effect thorough cutting ofthe filtered grains.

I claim:

1. An apparatus for producing wort comprising a vessel for storing andmixing the mash, a vessel for saccharifying and boiling the mash, andtwo mashing-off vessels for alternate use, said four vessels beingcombined to a unit, a circulating pump, a heating device, lineconnecting said vessels with each other and with said pump and heater,and control means in said lines.

2. In an apparatus for the production of wort, in combination with mashtubs, a tank, the lower portion of said tank forming a trough receivingfinished mash from said tubs, conduit means connecting said tubs andtrough, a rotary perforated drum filter dipping with its lower portioninto said mash, radially arranged suction means inside said drum fordrawing wort inwardly into the drum, cutting means arranged for actingradially from the outside towards the inside on the solids accumulatingon the periphery of the drum, sparging means for spraying liquid on theperiphery of the drum in the zone acted upon by said cutting means, andmeans removing the cut and sparged solids from the periphery of thedrum.

3. A device as claimed in claim 2 wherein the cutting means rotate inthe same direction and at the same speed as the drum.

4. A device as claimed in claim 3 wherein said cutting means have zigzagshaped edges.

5. A device as claimed in claim 3 wherein the cutting edges of thecutting means have a profile which is curved in the direction of theperiphery.

6. A device as claimed in claim 3 comprising a hollow shaft supportingsaid cutting means, said shaft having radial nozzle-like outlet openingsbetween adjacent cutting means for spraying sparging liquid admittedthrough the hollow shaft.

7. A device as claimed in claim 6 wherein said outlets are inclinedbores directed against the lateral faces of the cutting means.

8. A device as claimed in claim 6 comprising adjusting means for radialadjustment of the cutting means and their shaft with respect to thesurface of the drum.

9. A device as claimed in claim 2 wherein said cutting means comprise atleast one row of cutting discs having straight edges arranged in thedirection of rotation of the drum, and at least one row of cuttershaving edges shaped differently from the edges of said cutting discs.

10. A device as claimed in claim 2 comprising shafts supporting saidcutting means and means driving said shafts at the same speed and in thesame direction as said drum.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,922,730 8/1933 Gore et al99-278 X 2,082,222 6/1937 Siebel 99-278 X FOREIGN PATENTS 283,039 9/1952Switzerland.

OTHER REFERENCES German printed application 1,017,902, 10/1957.

WILLIAM I. PRICE, Primary Examiner.

